Welcome to this week’s Travel on a Shoestring Carnival, focusing on the highlights of the European continent. Photographic inspiration of the Crimean vineyards at harvest time comes to us from Q. Sakamakil at National Geographic’s Best Trips 2013. Click on the image to view further pictures of this Ukrainian destination.

A few months ago, a friend of mine posted a note on an internet BB: “Just in case you were wondering, it IS possible to fly [in the U.S.] without ID. Lots of extra time, searches and questions involved, but it IS possible.”
If you’re a frequent flier, it’s probably not something you think [...]

Safety is one of the primary concerns of every traveler. Here are a few freebies to help protect yourself on the road (like the treacherous one below I recently spotted in Linz, Germany):
+ from germs
+ from cooties
+ from insects
+ from password theft
+ from sunburn (scroll to “Product Features”)
+ and, if you’re crafty, from pickpockets [...]

+ Before you take off on your trip, purge your wallet of all unnecessary cards (library cards, gift cards, Blockbuster, etc.) and leave them at home. Better yet, use a different wallet for your trip and selectively and consciously put items you need (ATM card, credit card, insurance information, driver’s license if you’ll [...]

The U.S. State Department provides a number of free information services for travelers and citizens living abroad.
+ At the Travel Registration page, you can notify the local embassy of your intended whereabouts. This makes it easier to find you in event of an emergency back home or evacuations due to civil or political unrest [...]

A quick post between travels and loads of laundry . . . Expect budget reports on Venice and Malta next week.
If you’ve linked over to the blog from BlogHer or Vagabondish, welcome! On the BlogHer page, you may also have read the post by Barbara at Hole in the Donut about Traveling Safely which [...]

Most travelers today are armed with digital cameras and even camera phones (sometimes both), capturing the world 6 megapixels and one smile at a time. Between artsy shots of the Eiffel Tower at sunset and dorky shots at the Leaning Tower of Pisa [see left], have you considered doing something truly USEFUL with your [...]

If you fly often, you know the drill: what (not) to wear, take off your jacket and shoes, empty your pockets, take out your laptop, take out your baggie of travel-sized liquids. If you don’t know at least these five things when you approach the security checkpoint, you are holding up everyone behind [...]